


In Reverse

by Unfeathered



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24306412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unfeathered/pseuds/Unfeathered
Summary: Their relationship had happened rather backwards, Ianto always thought
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43
Collections: Who Contest Stories and Archive





	In Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Drabble Challenge #72 // "Backward" at [Who_Contest](https://who-contest.dreamwidth.org/)

Their relationship had happened rather backwards, Ianto always thought, in the reverse of the order relationships were supposed to go in.

It had started with betrayal, because he'd been intending to betray Jack right from the very first moment he came to him, intending to wangle his way into Jack's team for the sole purpose of hiding a partially converted Cyberwoman in his basement.

Then there'd been angry words – and fists – and vicious insults and all the things he'd normally associate with the bitter, acrimonious end of a dying relationship.

Shagging, then – often angry too – bringing release for both of them and not necessarily even _about_ each other. Just a way to deal with what the world – the universe – had thrown at them.

It wasn't until much later, not until Jack had disappeared and come back again somehow so much more settled and at ease with himself, that they actually went on a _date_. Actually sat down and spent time with each other without the world ending or a desperate need to be sated. Actually got to know each other at least.

And really rather liked what they'd found.

He often wondered what it would have been like if they'd done things in the proper sequence. If their first encounter had been at that table in the little Italian restaurant, where Jack had been nervous as a teenager and _he_ had actually, weirdly, been the more confident of the two.

He wondered if Jack would even have given him the time of day if it had happened that way round. At most he thought he might have got a quick shag out of it, one glorious night before Jack moved on, always moving on.

Instead, by the time they really got to know each other, they already knew all they needed to and were just filling in the gaps. They'd already seen the very worst of each other, far more telling than the best, the front that normally gets put on at first dates.

They trusted each other.

All in all, he was pretty glad it happened the way it did.


End file.
